Lessons learned at roping practice.

Last night at roping practice, on my first run, I caught, dallied, turned left, and my saddle (and my body) started rolling over to the right side of Tex's belly. I then put all my weight in the LEFT stirrup, put my right hand on the horn, and hung my whole body off the left side to try to hold the saddle on the center of the horse. All this while unwinding my dally and running the steer. All ended well, and I told everyone I was just doing some trick riding for everyone's entertainment. Lesson learned- tighten your saddle, stupid.

A couple runs later I swung too large of a loop, got too close to the steer, and somehow got my rope tangled up in the steers heels.

Lesson learned- keep a smaller loop, get further back.

Later I was in the head box and making small talk with the guy running the head gate while the heeler got settled. I accidentally nodded while talking, and poof- he opened the gate. 

Lesson learned- keep body language, you know, under control or something while visiting with the head gate guy. 

On my last run, everything was right - good steer, good heeler, last round. I nodded (on purpose this time), and just as that black long horned cow came out, her hoof chunked a huge dirt clod backward - right into both of my eyes. I went blind for a few seconds at high speed, but I just kept on swinging, and when I could see shapes through the grit, I chunked it. 

Lesson learned- ummmmm....?